Once in a Vedic period all Devas lost their powers due to curse from a saint. They went and prayed the three gods Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma. As per their advices they started to churn the Great Milky Ocean called ‘Thirupparkadal.’

They used the snake called ‘Vasuki’ as the rope and the Mount called ‘Mantara malai’ as the mast or spindle. Lord Vishnu took His Avatar in the form of tortoise ‘Koorma Avatar’ and mounted himself as the bearing at the bottom most. As the Devas were not able to rotate the mast they joined with the Asuras as partners.

The churning stared vigorously for days and days. Because of heavy pressure the snake could not tolerate the pain and stared to emit its poison. The poison started to get accumulated all over the surface and everybody fainted.

Lord Shiva came to the rescue and swallowed the poison himself. The poison is called as ‘Ala Kala Visham’. The temple at Lord Guru Alangudi Navagraha Temple is the place this incident happened thus giving rise to the name Alangudi to this Sthalam and the Lord was known as “Aabathsagayeshwarar” (One who defends from the danger).

Sundaramurthy Nayanar and Alangudi temple:

Collecting ;Ala Kala Visham; the poison: Sundarar was born as Nambi Arurar to Sadaiyanar and Isaignani in Thirunavalur village. The ruler of the local kingdom (Thirumunaipadi-Nadu), Narasingamunaiarayar, adopted him and brought up as his own son.

Sundarar was widely known as “Halala Sundarar”. Asuras and Dhevas wanted to have the holy ‘Amritam’ the nectar that would make one live long avoiding death. The Amrita was in the milky ocean and required churning the huge ocean to get out the nectar.

They came together to collectively churn the big ocean. They churned the milk ocean with Mandhara Mountain as the stem and serpent Vasuki as the rope. In the process, due to the pain serpent Vasuki emitted the poison Ala Kala Visham (meaning destructive). Lord Shiva sent Sundarar to collect the Poison which emerged from the Ocean. Lord Shiva as Boatman:

Once Sundarar was on the way to the Alangudi Apath sakayeswarar temple in quest of seeing the God and worshipping Him with his great Poems. When he was just near the village there was heavy flow of water in the river called â€œVettaruâ€, a branch of river Cauvery, and 3 km away from Alangudi, which was in between to reach this place. Nobody was there in the vicinity and Sundarar prayed for a solution to Lord Shiva.

Lord Siva as a ferryman (boatman) helped Sundaramurthy Swamigal to cross the river Vettaru. The boat capsized hitting a rock, on the way. Lord Siva seated on his Rishaba Vahana helped him reach the sthalam safely.

Sundarar received his Gnana Upadesam after his darshanam of Dakshinamurthy in this Lord Guru Alangudi Navagraha Temple. Thiru Gnanasambandar has sung in praise of the Lord here and is the 98th temple among the 127 temples located on the southern bank of Cauvery. It is one among the 274 “Padal Petra Sthalams” in Chola Dynasty. The Chicken Pox to and idol:

Once upon a time, a Chola Raja who ruled over Thiruvarur was fascinated by the idol of Sundaramurthy Nayanar in the Lord Guru Alangudi Navagraha Temple. He desired to have it installed at Thiruvarur for worship. On learning this, temple priest at Alangudi become panic stricken.

He disguised the idol as a child affected with chicken-pox, hid it inside a swing and brought it back safely to Alangudi. The traces of Chicken-pox can still be seen on this image.